A comp for all seasons
Garthe Milne records his experiences at the Cape Gauntlet and says it is not just for the pundits:
Hey, I came fifth in the first Cape Gauntlet day, and there were seven starts!
Yeah, I suppose you know there were two relights. That makes me fifth out of five aircraft. Alan has now twisted my arm to spill the beans!
I decided to participate in the “Gauntlet” as a good opportunity to be at briefings, hear strategy and tips, and hopefully compare experiences of the flight with the really experienced pilots. I won’t beat them (unless possibly their “p” bags get jammed), but I also wouldn’t refuse an offer to play golf with Gary Player! I won’t repeat that story now!
The 09h00 briefing foretold the winds and conditions. Alan gave me individual advice on crossing from the Tulbach valley onto the Porterville mountains (and back!). I have been solo to the end of the Tulbach valley and to Tradouw twice, but Porterville and Renosterhoek are Sirens calling me!
I was tightening GHW’s wheel brake cable when Sven started chasing to get aircraft to the takeoff point. MIV’s starter sounded like a rooster with a hernia and he feared we would have a one-MIV-start day. As luck sometimes has it, just as GHW reached RW 15, the wind changed, so with wheels rolling, HW beat everyone to RW33. After positives and pre-takeoff checks I was soon airborne, hoping to join Peter Farrel who had reported he could maintain height at Jan du Toit’s.
The launch and initial tow was turbulent and slow. While fighting the turbulence, an appreciated voice called on the radio that my airbrakes were out. See them close fast! It was still turbulent and at one stage the tug soared unusually high above me. Mark later chewed me out about the airbrakes (will make me more conscious in the future). I don’t know if I didn’t have the brakes over the detent, or whether they just opened on a bump. Maybe the ground crew will let me know. (GHW’s air brakes have opened on me twice before in mid-tow). Lesson: Check brakes LOCKED before takeoff. Don’t expect the tug to waggle rudder when your brakes open! If the tow seems rough before the tug takes off, or if it climbs slowly, check your airbrakes.
The climb to Jan du Toit’s was turbulent though uneventful, and we reached there at about 3500 ft. There was huge smoke everywhere that I didn’t like, and I released near the mountain into lift. A half circle later I was in stronger sink than the lift, and the pattern didn’t change. With a similar situation on Brandwag, I headed back to FAWC, hoping to get one of the valley thermals to get away. It simply didn’t happen, and the red hill and downwind thermals were on holiday, so I was soon in the middle of RW15 again, wondering whether to put GHW in the hangar or not!.
Lesson: It’s a bad investment to release below 4000 ft or 4500 ft on the north mountains- even the Audenberg. I should have radio’d Mark to make one or more circles to gain height. My (poor) excuse is I didn’t like being on tow with the heavy smoke around. Actually it would have been even better to get him to do a safety circuit on take-off. Twice in the past I have also had to return fast from Waaihoek (Google Earth calls it RooiBerg).. Maybe its wiser to always go to the Audenberg first!
After helping launch the flying list, I decided to stretch the overdraft, and was under tow for the clouds to the East of the airfield. Releasing into a thermal I tried to retract GHW’s undercarriage, but it only went half way. I closed it fully and tried again with the same effect. Better to have an undercarriage locked down than up, so I deployed it, checked it was locked properly, and focused on remaining pleasures!
I was now in the middle of the valley, under clouds with a draggy undercarriage, and mountains to the North that had failed me about two hours earlier. Time to forget about the competition, and enjoy soaring under the clouds!
An hour under the cloud reaffirmed the joy of soaring. Cloudbase was about 5000’ and I could skip between clouds without a care in the world about getting back to the airfield. GUC shared a thermal for a while, then I departed towards Keeromsberg, but turned back since the clouds were covering its top, making it impossible to visit the cliff and radio huts on top of Ben Heatlie.
With wheel out, and shot down earlier, the will to go far from Worster had gone, so I headed for ViC Peak, reaching the South side at 3500 ft. Lift slightly more than sink let me gain 50 ft per pass, so I got much practice before the beacon was under the wings. Nice flying though!
After about 2.5 hours airborne, HW was back in the hangar. I slipped the trailer’s dolly under the nose and rolled the wheels onto a series of thin planks till the main wheel came off the ground. One of the brackets that keeps the wheel bay doors from jamming the wheel when retracting had been bent outward, probably by a stone during the first landing or retrieve. I straightened the bracket with fingers, and the undercarriage problem was solved.
So ends another day, and still not yet past Porterville. Never mind! Porterville will still be there on future week-ends!
The cloud flying was great, the friendship was great, and the poor judgements will hopefully be avoided when next in a similar situation. The Gauntlet day was / is a great opportunity to break new ground with CGC friends on the mountains -- or is that a poor choice of words?
Hope you will be at next month’s Gauntlet. See --- you don’t even have to fly the course to participate! However you may come more than fifth!
Garth
Hey, I came fifth in the first Cape Gauntlet day, and there were seven starts!
Yeah, I suppose you know there were two relights. That makes me fifth out of five aircraft. Alan has now twisted my arm to spill the beans!
I decided to participate in the “Gauntlet” as a good opportunity to be at briefings, hear strategy and tips, and hopefully compare experiences of the flight with the really experienced pilots. I won’t beat them (unless possibly their “p” bags get jammed), but I also wouldn’t refuse an offer to play golf with Gary Player! I won’t repeat that story now!
The 09h00 briefing foretold the winds and conditions. Alan gave me individual advice on crossing from the Tulbach valley onto the Porterville mountains (and back!). I have been solo to the end of the Tulbach valley and to Tradouw twice, but Porterville and Renosterhoek are Sirens calling me!
I was tightening GHW’s wheel brake cable when Sven started chasing to get aircraft to the takeoff point. MIV’s starter sounded like a rooster with a hernia and he feared we would have a one-MIV-start day. As luck sometimes has it, just as GHW reached RW 15, the wind changed, so with wheels rolling, HW beat everyone to RW33. After positives and pre-takeoff checks I was soon airborne, hoping to join Peter Farrel who had reported he could maintain height at Jan du Toit’s.
The launch and initial tow was turbulent and slow. While fighting the turbulence, an appreciated voice called on the radio that my airbrakes were out. See them close fast! It was still turbulent and at one stage the tug soared unusually high above me. Mark later chewed me out about the airbrakes (will make me more conscious in the future). I don’t know if I didn’t have the brakes over the detent, or whether they just opened on a bump. Maybe the ground crew will let me know. (GHW’s air brakes have opened on me twice before in mid-tow). Lesson: Check brakes LOCKED before takeoff. Don’t expect the tug to waggle rudder when your brakes open! If the tow seems rough before the tug takes off, or if it climbs slowly, check your airbrakes.
The climb to Jan du Toit’s was turbulent though uneventful, and we reached there at about 3500 ft. There was huge smoke everywhere that I didn’t like, and I released near the mountain into lift. A half circle later I was in stronger sink than the lift, and the pattern didn’t change. With a similar situation on Brandwag, I headed back to FAWC, hoping to get one of the valley thermals to get away. It simply didn’t happen, and the red hill and downwind thermals were on holiday, so I was soon in the middle of RW15 again, wondering whether to put GHW in the hangar or not!.
Lesson: It’s a bad investment to release below 4000 ft or 4500 ft on the north mountains- even the Audenberg. I should have radio’d Mark to make one or more circles to gain height. My (poor) excuse is I didn’t like being on tow with the heavy smoke around. Actually it would have been even better to get him to do a safety circuit on take-off. Twice in the past I have also had to return fast from Waaihoek (Google Earth calls it RooiBerg).. Maybe its wiser to always go to the Audenberg first!
After helping launch the flying list, I decided to stretch the overdraft, and was under tow for the clouds to the East of the airfield. Releasing into a thermal I tried to retract GHW’s undercarriage, but it only went half way. I closed it fully and tried again with the same effect. Better to have an undercarriage locked down than up, so I deployed it, checked it was locked properly, and focused on remaining pleasures!
I was now in the middle of the valley, under clouds with a draggy undercarriage, and mountains to the North that had failed me about two hours earlier. Time to forget about the competition, and enjoy soaring under the clouds!
An hour under the cloud reaffirmed the joy of soaring. Cloudbase was about 5000’ and I could skip between clouds without a care in the world about getting back to the airfield. GUC shared a thermal for a while, then I departed towards Keeromsberg, but turned back since the clouds were covering its top, making it impossible to visit the cliff and radio huts on top of Ben Heatlie.
With wheel out, and shot down earlier, the will to go far from Worster had gone, so I headed for ViC Peak, reaching the South side at 3500 ft. Lift slightly more than sink let me gain 50 ft per pass, so I got much practice before the beacon was under the wings. Nice flying though!
After about 2.5 hours airborne, HW was back in the hangar. I slipped the trailer’s dolly under the nose and rolled the wheels onto a series of thin planks till the main wheel came off the ground. One of the brackets that keeps the wheel bay doors from jamming the wheel when retracting had been bent outward, probably by a stone during the first landing or retrieve. I straightened the bracket with fingers, and the undercarriage problem was solved.
So ends another day, and still not yet past Porterville. Never mind! Porterville will still be there on future week-ends!
The cloud flying was great, the friendship was great, and the poor judgements will hopefully be avoided when next in a similar situation. The Gauntlet day was / is a great opportunity to break new ground with CGC friends on the mountains -- or is that a poor choice of words?
Hope you will be at next month’s Gauntlet. See --- you don’t even have to fly the course to participate! However you may come more than fifth!
Garth
posted by CGC Reporter at 11:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home